Martin Drew died in London on Thursday of a heart attack. Drew was the house drummer at Ronnie Scott's club for 20 years beginning in 1975. He gained his greatest fame during the same period and into the new century playing around the world in Oscar Peterson's trios and quartets. Recently he led his quintet The New Couriers, formed in tribute to the late saxophonist Tubby Hayes, with whom he played in the '60s and early '70s. A master of his instrument who seemed uninterested in flaunting his … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2010
Desmond a la Francais
The French jazz critic Alain Gerber is also a novelist, or vice versa. He published a book in 2007 that may be a biography, a novel, or both. Its title in French is Paul Desmond et le côté féminin du monde, or Paul Desmond and the Feminine Side of the World. That is the extent of my ability to translate from French to English, and I owe it to Google. I'm the guy who gets by in France for two weeks at a time with Excusez-moi de vous deranger. Here is the Googleized English version of the French … [Read more...]
New Picks: Summer Listening, Viewing, Reading
The Rifftides staff is pleased to announce a new batch of the recommendations known as Doug's Picks. Please proceed to the center column, scroll down and, there they are. … [Read more...]
CD: David Weiss
David Weiss & Point Of Departure, Snuck In (Sunnyside). Trumpeter Weiss's heart may be in the 1960s, but he and his young band operate very much in the present. His solo style is largely a bequest from the late Freddie Hubbard, with whom he worked closely as a player and arranger. His repertoire here consists of pieces by Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill and Tony Williams, plus two from the neglected Detroit trumpeter Charles Moore. Weiss, tenor saxophonist J.D. Allan, guitarist Nir Felder, bassist … [Read more...]
CD: Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding, Chamber Music Society (Heads Up). The contrarian impulse is to briskly walk away from hype about the latest sensation du jour, but critical duty says, listen anyway. In Spalding's case, I'm glad I listened. She is an accomplished bassist with depth of tone, penetrating timbre and good note choices. Her singing has clarity and lightness. She is consistently in tune. Spalding writes and arranges well. With a small string ensemble, piano, drums and percussion, she interprets … [Read more...]
CD: Joe Sardaro
Joe Sardaro, Lost In The Stars (Catch My Drift). Last year, I mentioned in a review of Joe Sardaro's Protégé that the singer's 1986 vinyl album Lost In The Stars had never been reissued. Now, happily, it is on CD. Sardaro recruited high-level backing for his first recording; drummer Shelly Manne, bassist Monte Budwig, guitarist Al Viola, saxophonist/flutist Sam Most and pianist John Knapp. To quote my 1987 Jazz Times review of the LP, "A light baritone without spectacular range or notable … [Read more...]
DVD: Jimmy And Percy Heath
Jimmy And Percy Heath, Jazz Master Class (Artists House). In 2004, the year before bassist Percy Heath died, he and his saxophonist/composer brother Jimmy appeared in John Snyder's master class series at New York University. A pair of DVDs captures them in several stunning duets, critiquing student performances of Jimmy's tunes and being interviewed by author Gary Giddins. We also see pre- and post-master class conversations with the students, transcriptions of solos rolling across the screen as … [Read more...]
Book: Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar, American Splendor: The Life And Times Of Harvey Pekar (Ballantine Books). Pekar, who died this month, mesmerized readers by transforming his ordinary life into comics for adults. Pekar wrote the stories. R. Crumb and a crew of other artists illustrated them to Pekar's specifications, in living black and white. His work led to the movie of the same name. I'm not sure that I'd go as far as some critics who compare him to Chekhov, but I'm not sure that I wouldn't. If Pekar's gritty … [Read more...]
Language: Irritating Cliché Department
This rhetorical padding is used by countless politicians and, it seems, nearly everyone interviewed or quoted in the news, from President Obama on down: "...going forward..." and its variant, "...moving forward..." Take it out of virtually any sentence and you will lose no meaning. Example: "The administration will keep a close watch on this, moving forward." Getting rid of "moving forward;" now, that would be moving forward. Of course, properly used, the phrase can be a source of … [Read more...]
Other Places: Barkan To The Rescue
Jimmy Heath recently said he's been hearing since he was a youngster that jazz is dying. The saxophonist and composer/arranger will be 84 in October. Joining him in discounting death rumors is a younger man, the veteran entrepreneur Todd Barkan, who runs the oddly named but vital Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, a bastion of jazz in New York City. Barkan is preparing a fall festival designed to help insure the music's vitality by bringing together some of its wise elders with promising younger musicians. … [Read more...]
Weekend Extra: Fun With Chet And Paul
Someone who identifies himself on YouTube as "liveacid" went to painstaking trouble to manufacture a video of Chet Baker and Paul Desmond playing "Autumn Leaves." The music track is from Baker's 1974 album She Was Too Good To Me. It was later reissued on the compilation Chet Baker & Paul Desmond Together. From disparate sources, the editor rounded up shots of Baker, Desmond, pianist Bob James, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Steve Gadd. You'll hear Hubert Laws' flute, but "liveacid" did not … [Read more...]
Recent Listening: These Pianists Are From Venus
The Japanese have a longstanding love affair with jazz piano. Albums by jazz pianists sell consistently well in Japan. Leading pianists from around the world perform there in concerts and clubs. Indeed, the country has produced its own crops of world-class pianists, among them Toshiko Akiyoshi, Makoto Ozone, Kei Akagi, Junko Onishi and the current phenomenon Hiromi Uehara. A Japanese promoter organizes an annual tour called 100 Gold Fingers that features 10 prominent pianists in concert. The … [Read more...]
Other Places: Manfred Eicher And ECM
Manfred Eicher has been successful with his ECM label not by constantly taking the pulse of the public and the record industry but by recording music he likes. That is an oversimplification, but not much of one. In the British newspaper The Guardian, Richard Williams has a piece about Eicher and his 40 years at the helm of the company he founded. Near the top of the article, he writes: To its many admirers, ECM stands for a certain meditative, introspective approach to playing and listening. Its … [Read more...]
From The Archive: Separated At Birth?
This was first a Rifftides post on March 24, 2006. Thanks to Bill Reed and David Ehrenstein for calling this to our attention. … [Read more...]
Compatible Quotes: On Freedom
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution. —Igor Stravinsky At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They speak of freedom. But one has no right, under pretext of freeing yourself, to be illogical and incoherent by getting rid of structure and simply piling a lot of notes one on top of the other. —Thelonious Monk … [Read more...]
Recent Listening: Kamuca and Konitz
Richie Kamuca & Lee Konitz, Live at Donte's 1974 (Cellar Door) It's a hoot to hear the saxophonists channel their hero Lester Young in this recently discovered session recorded at the lamented Los Angeles club. "Lester Leaps In" begins and ends as a unison duet, complete with stop-time breaks, reproducing Young's 1939 solo on the master take of the piece with Count Basie's Kansas City Seven. In their own solos, Kamuca and Konitz leave no doubt about where they came from. Kamuca, the tenor … [Read more...]
Recent Listening: Whitted, Manricks, Saluzzi, O’Brien
Here is the new batch of short reviews —micro-reviews, perhaps—in which the Rifftides staff acknowledges some of the CDs that have attracted our attention lately. It would be impossible to hear all of every album that shows up. Even sampling a majority of them is a challenge. Evidence: these are some, only some, of the fairly recent arrivals. Whoever said jazz is dying hasn't talked to my FedEx, UPS and USPS deliverymen. Pharez Whitted, Transient Journey (Owl). In his liner notes, … [Read more...]
Things To Come
In a doomed attempt to stay abreast of the torrent of new releases flooding into Rifftides world headquarters, the staff is feverishly preparing a series of brief reviews; perhaps "alerts" would be a better word. It is our intention to begin posting them tomorrow or the next day. Even in the digital age, however, listening is a linear proposition, so bear with us. We can't just inhale the music, you know (no substance gags, please). Oh, that was a substance gag. Watch this space. … [Read more...]
Brubeck & Company In Belgium, Part 5
Ending this Rifftides mini-series of videos from the Dave Brubeck Quartet's 1964 appearance on Belgian television is—what else?—the number that became a popular hit in a best-selling album and for Desmond, its composer, an annuity that by terms of his will is still funneling large amounts of money to the Red Cross. The quartet included it in all of their concerts around the world, lest there be disappointed audiences. This version has a brief solo from Desmond, an elegiac one from … [Read more...]